


Tabletop Club

by Rikkitikitavi



Category: riptide (book)
Genre: F/M, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-21 23:57:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11955417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkitikitavi/pseuds/Rikkitikitavi
Summary: "I still don't see how glasses are a good disguise." Nick muttered, watching Rikki as she fixed her glasses to her face."They make me look young and studious." Rikki said simply before she grabbed her blazer and headed for the door. "C'mon, mister teacher, don't wanna be late on the first day."Nick sighed and followed after her. At least she was wearing her glasses for once. He shooed her out of the drivers seat and proceeded to the school. The private school. Full of rich white kids. Which he has to try teach. God. Why did he agree to this mission? Why did he agree to work for this organization?Rikki. That's why. He watched as she got out and winked at him. "See you in class, teach." Once she was in the doors he leaned on the steering wheel and groaned. Passing students stared.





	1. Secret Missions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rachael Pennick](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Rachael+Pennick).



Rikki skipped into class, happily empty-handed and taking the seat in the back near the window. A couple students were there already, making small talk. A prim rich grade 11 class right after winter break. Some stared at her; the new brown girl. She grinned back and they shrugged it off. Some whispered, obviously. Rikki just looked out the window until class started. It was nice. Still snowing, so she was forced to wear the longer uniform.

 

"Alright, class." Rikki glanced over lazily when she heard a ruler smack against wood. The teacher for this class, an older woman with greying hair and scowling eyes was standing there with ruler in hand. Nick stood off to the side near the board. Everyone rushed to their seats. "We have some new... colourful, additions to class." Rikki rolled her eyes, she could see Nick forcing himself not to. "This is Mr. Saijo, he will be teaching you all under my eye for the semester. He's a student teacher here with his...."

 

Nick stepped forward and gestured to Rikki who stood up and grinned widely at the class. "This is Rikki Saijo. We aren't related, nor married. Our situation is... complicated. You could call us roommates I suppose." There was a chorus of ooo's all through the class. "No, stop-" Rikki joined in. "Stop." Rikki snickered and sat down. "We simply live together."

 

"And have the same last name even though we're not related~." Rikki added. Nick shot her a dirty look.

 

"Time for attendance." Nick said curtly before grabbing the clipboard.

 

 

 

Rikki got a lot of pretty racist questions that day. Some people got pretty bloody that day too. She was sent to the principals office with Nick, who defended her. Racist kids sometimes deserve to be punched; it's a learning experience for the real world. Maybe if these kids were taught about racist they wouldn't be racist. Of course he didn't use those words _exactly_ , but Rikki wasn't actually paying attention. She may or may not have been flirting with the other kid that got called to the office. A gangly kid from the class across from hers. A senior that got in trouble for modifying his uniform. Todd or Chad or something really white.

 

 

After school she met the same senior (Todd? Chad? Tadd?) in the hallway and flirted some more. "I, uh, I'd invite you over but I've got so many siblings there's no way we'll get any privacy." He muttered. He was so shy. Cute.

 

"I literally live with a teacher...." Rikki sighed and glanced around. "Bleachers?"

 

"Football and druggies hang out there."

 

"Empty classroom?"

 

"They're being used for clubs or teachers."

 

Rikki frowned. She had hoped today could be some sort of fun at least. "Closet."

 

"Wh-"

 

"Closet." She pulled him by the collar to the janitor's closet down the hall.

 

"Wh- no. That's gross!" He protested.

 

"It's all we got." Rikki put her hands on her hips. "Do you want this or not?"

 

"Well- ah... I mean, y-yeah..."

 

"Then it shouldn't matter. I've fucked in worse places before."

 

"Wait we're f-" Rikki had enough, pulling him down towards her and opening the door at the same time. Time to get on getting on. She pulled him in with her.

 

Only to trip over another body.

 

There was a crack of a thin board. Items went flying everywhere as she fell backwards, accidentally bringing the boy with her. Everything was a mess. Great. Rikki looked around and saw a group of people surrounding her. Some looked shocked, a couple looked angry. There were dice and papers everywhere. "Our entire campaign!" One of them said.

 

"My board! My guide!" A blonde exclaimed, trying to save everything as best he could. "Those were so expensive!"

 

And with that Rikki and the boy (Chad? Benjamin?) were back at the office. Along with the blonde from before. Nick came storming over and Rikki beamed at him, sitting proudly in her disheveled uniform. He growled and pulled her aside, into the empty classroom across the way. So there was an empty classroom! White boy lied to her.

 

"Would you mind telling me why you've been called to the principals office twice on the first day?" Nick hissed.

 

Rikki rolled her eyes and smiled, patting his cheek. "You don't have to pretend to be an authoritative figure when we're alone, love."

 

"Ri." He hissed once more. "I can't be explaining away all your bullshit as racism until summer. If you can't stay in school the entire time the mission's a failure."

 

"Yeah, yeah." Rikki sighed. "Sorry, this school shit's just so boring!" She whined.

 

"Only a few months of recon. I believe in you." He put his hand on her shoulder. "But I will have to punish you this time around." He said before leaving, gesturing for her to follow him.

 

Rikki groaned and followed behind. The two boys were in the principals office already. When Rikki and Nick came in the white boy stood and let Rikki sit.

 

"So," The principal sighed at her when she sat down. "Miss troublemaker. I hear you ruined the tabletop club's meeting today."

 

"Excuse me- club?" Rikki crossed her arms. "It was a janitors closet."

 

"It's all that was available." The principal shrugged. "Perhaps you should have read the sign on the door."

 

"There was no sign on the door."

 

"There was," The blonde sitting beside her said. "A big one right on the front!"

 

"Well you should have made it more visible." Rikki scoffed.

 

"Miss Saijo. Mister Fern." The principal snapped. "I would like you to apologize to mister McKindale right now."

 

 The boy behind her apologized and the boy beside her nodded a thank you. Rikki was about to do so as well when Nick approached the principal. "All due respect sir, but I've known her all her life and she will not learn from this." Nick, no!

 

"Well then what do you suggest?"

 

"She can join the tabletop club. Learn their situation and make some new friends. I read up on the tabletop club and they're some of the highest grading and least troubling students in the school. Perhaps they could rub off on her." Nick stood behind the principal and smirked at her while the principal mulled it over.

 

"All due respect sir," The McKindale kid leaned forward. "The club is already full. We're right in the middle of a big campaign, and besides the janitors closet is barely big enough for five of us and our supplies, let alone six."

 

"You can use my classroom." Nick suggested. "Miss Macintosh usually doesn't let anyone in after school, but I think I can convince her."

 

"No!" Rikki and the McKindale kid said at the same time.

 

"Hm... Very well." The principal nodded. "Miss Saijo, mister McKindale can show you the ropes and bring you into this 'campaign' of his when you leave the office."

 

"Sir-" The McKindale kid started.

 

"Upupupupup, no protests." The principal held his hand up. "You three are dismissed."

 

Rikki and the McKindale kid grumbled their way out of the office, the other boy following behind.

 

"So... uh.... You wanna try this again later?" The other boy asked.

 

"Y'know what?" Rikki sighed. "Sur-"

 

"She'll be busy." The McKindale kid said before taking Rikki by the wrist and dragging her down the hall.

 

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Rikki ripped her hand back from him.

 

"You're technically my responsibility now, and I don't want you getting me into more trouble than I already am! Besides, you need to clean up the mess you made." He said as he pushed open the janitors closet to reveal the giant mess that was left behind. "There's five sets of six different dice." He held out five small baggies. "Good luck."

 

This fucking sucked, they both thought at the same time.

 


	2. Loathing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unadulterated loathing~!

"Gang," The boy said, gesturing to Rikki. "This is Rikki Saijo. She's in the club now."

 

It was the next day and the group filed into the classroom- where apparently both the McKindale kid and Rikki had homeroom. There were five total; six including Rikki. A pair of siblings with strawberry blonde hair, a plump boy covered in acne, a tall stocky boy who looked like he was ready for college, and a young girl with broken glasses and a frumpy uniform. When Rikki was introduced most just nodded in disinterest. The young girl grumbled in annoyance.

 

"Rikki, this is Lillian and Bartholomew," he gestured to the siblings. They waved in sync. "Kyle," he gestured to the boy covered in acne. The boy nodded in acknowledgment. "Markus," the stocky boy gave a small wave. "And Hannah," the young girl snorted and glared at Rikki.

 

"And... You are?" Rikki smiled , turning towards the boy.

 

"What...?" He blinked at her, confused.

 

"Well do you go by your last name?" She leaned towards him and tilted her head, grinning when she saw him lean away and blush just the slightest. "Because that's all I know."

 

"Oh. Right. I'm Thomas." He held out his hand to shake hers. "Welcome to the club."

 

Rikki, the incorrigible flirt and mischievous asshole she was, took his hand and spun him around before dipping him. " _Pleasure, love_."

 

Rikki broke him, if only for a moment. There was just a split second where she saw his brain just stop working. Her grin grew wider when she heard the others snicker. There was a flash of horror on Thomas' face as he stood himself up, clearing his throat. He gave a sigh and adjusted his glasses. "Let's get you ready to join."

 

Dungeons and Dragons was _hard_.

 

Rikki couldn't understand it at all. They spent a good three hours explaining things to her and giving her books (which she couldn't actually read) and nothing was making sense. It was eventually five and time to head home. Rikki headed for the roof and Thomas stopped her.

 

"Hey, you know the door's this way right?"

 

"I just have something to do before I go." Rikki smiled before turning on her heels and heading on her way.

 

"Okay..... Don't do anything that will get me in trouble!" Thomas called after her before going home.

 

 

 

School went on as usual. The tabletop club was... nice. They definitely did not rub off on her, merely took up her time. She was starting to resent being paired with Nick on this mission. He kept pairing her up with Thomas just to spite her. He was fine enough, could be cute if he actually tried. He had a five dollar hair cut and ten dollar glasses. He didn't have much acne, which was surprising by how bad his skin was taken care of. She often found herself just staring at how bad he looked; especially compared to everyone else in the school.

 

"Hello? Are you even paying attention?" Thomas waved a hand in front of her face. She'd come over to his house for some science project. A diorama or something. She'd just been analyzing him the entire time.

 

"Hey, why aren't you hot?" Rikki asked.

 

"W-what?" Thomas stuttered. "That has nothing to do with mitochondria."

 

"Everyone is hot and rich at this place," Rikki continued, leaning towards him. "You're the only one that's different."

 

"You don't even have shoes half the time!"

 

"I _choose_ not to wear shoes all the time," Rikki corrected. "They force me to wear shoes sometimes."

 

"Oookay, well let's grab some red pipe cleaners," Thomas said, opening a drawer.

 

"Your house is pretty shitty too, no offence." She floated around to the other side of him while he was distracted. "Isn't it a rich school?"

 

"I got in on a scholarship." He shrugged, doing a double take when he saw her on the complete other side of him.

 

"... Where's your family?"

 

"Everyone works." He pulled the package of red pipe cleaners out and headed back over to their half made project.

 

"All the time?" Rikki raised an eyebrow as she followed him over, standing close to see what he was doing. "I mean I've been over here at least five times for projects and I haven't seen anyone here before besides us."

 

"Well-" He jumped when he turned and she was closer than he thought. "Hi," he said as he took a step away from her. "They all have like three jobs, so... Y'know."

 

"Must be lonely..." Rikki muttered. "Living alone sucks."

 

"Yeah...."

 

"So what are we doing here?" Rikki asked as she grabbed some pipe cleaners. It took a moment for Thomas to answer her.

 

 

 

"So what do you do on the roof every day?" Thomas asked through a mouthful of food. Rikki had taken to sitting with the tabletop club at lunch on the hill outside. It was pretty in the winter and she had a good vantage point to people watch. The rest of them had other priorities however and it was only Thomas and herself there today. That happened a lot, Thomas said it happened even before too. He spent a lot of lunches alone.

 

"Oh?" Rikki shrugged. "Y'know, stuff. How do you know I go to the roof every day?"

 

"Well I.... W- Ah, I.... I followed you. Like, twice." He glanced down, embarrassed.

 

"Ah," Rikki nodded, not really understanding why he was embarrassed. "Yeah, I mean... I like my alone time y'know." She wasn't going to out herself to this kid.

 

Nothing more was asked.

 

 

 

"I roll to seduce the bugbear." Rikki grinned at Thomas. She was finally getting the hang of this game. Everyone groaned.

 

"You can't just keep seducing every enemy we meet!" Kyle complained as she rolled the dice.

 

"It's a twenty. That's good, right? Did I win?" Everyone groaned once more.

 

"Yes, you won." Thomas ran a hand down his face. "You've seduced the bugbear. He stands down and-"

 

"And I sweep him off his feet."

 

"Strength check." 

 

Rikki rolled again. "I rolled a fifteen. Did I win?"

 

"Plus six; twenty-one." Markus said, glancing at her paper.

 

Thomas glared at her, deadpanning, "you lift this giant bugbear into your tiny dwarven arms and he blushes profusely."

 

"Nice."

 

 

 

"Okay, but what if you just..." Rikki said, reaching over to try and fix Thomas' hair. He batted her away and continued to work on whatever worksheet they were given. "No seriously!" She grabbed his glasses, refusing to give them back. "Look, you're already five times hotter now. We can get you contacts... Or like, something that doesn't look like you picked them out of the thrift store trash bin."

 

"Why does appearance matter so much to you?" Thomas scoffed as he tried to grab his glasses back.

 

"Because it's power." Rikki said seriously. "Right now you have none, and the entire school is walking all over you!"

 

"Not true!"

 

Rikki raised an eyebrow as she handed him his glasses back. "Before I came you were playing in the janitors closet."

 

"Okay, well, what do you expect?" He asked as he put his glasses back on. "I can't exactly go and buy an entire new wardrobe. I can barely afford the school uniform."

 

"Easy," she whipped out a credit card she'd stolen from Nick and grinned. "I treat you to a makeover."

 

"No," He said as she got out of her seat and grabbed his arm. "No, no, no, no, no."

 

"C'mon!" Rikki whined as she dragged him to the front door. "It's not like I'm doing the work anyways." She stood there, grinning at him. He glared at her, thinking through it. "Oh come on! Please? It'll be fun!"

 

Another moment of thinking.

 

"Fine. I'll come try things on, but you're not buying anything." Thomas sighed as he put his shoes on.

 

Rikki was thankful he had a bike so they wouldn't have to walk all the way to the mall. It took some convincing for him to let her ride on the spokes behind him. On the way there she winked at a couple girls that giggled as they passed. Rikki could _feel_ Thomas rolling his eyes. They got to the mall in twenty minutes and Rikki bounced along happily. She loved make overs. It was fun to see how people changed.

 

"Okay, here!" She pointed to a department store.

 

"Sears?" Thomas raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding me?"

 

"You can do a lot with a little." She poked his nose before bounding in. "C'mon!"

 

Rikki had him try on a lot of outfits. See what he was comfortable with, see what suited him. Eventually they settled on a graphic tee, blazer, and dark jeans. Plus some better looking glasses and a bit of a hairstyle. Rikki waited for him outside the fitting room in anticipation. When he came out he was nervous, but Rikki bounced in excitement. "You look so amazing!" She turned him to the mirror and grinned.

 

"I look entirely different..." Thomas grinned, turning to her. "Hot, even. Like one of the guys you make out with." Rikki laughed. "But," He shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. "It's still me though." 

 

Rikki blinked at him before grabbing his shoulders, turning him back to the mirror. "That's the best part. The outside is new, but now it represents what's inside. Couldn't change that if I wanted to, and I don't." She smiled at him. "Looks are the easiest power you can gain. Embrace that... And I'm buying you, like, all of this."

 

"What? No." Thomas frowned. "No."

 

"It's the first steps to becoming you, love." She grinned, grabbing a few other articles of clothing. "Come on, get your ratty t-shirt back on."

 

 

Rikki got a good berating from Nick that night about focusing on the mission.


End file.
